Collection #1

"Collection à1" by the Milanese composer Antonio Eros Negri is an instrumental "collection" of some of his most important compositions. Conductors, orchestras, chamber groups and individual performers have performed live and in the studio works such as the "Suite Cubana" (Ensemble of the Conservatory of Como, conductor: Giovanni Battista Mazza), the "Quartetto d'archi in un tempo" (Orchestra Milano Classica - conductor: Massimiliano Caldi), the "Sonatina per flauto, violoncello e pianoforte" (Tro Musica Nova) or the "Notturno con variazioni per chitarra" (Massimo Laura).A very precise snapshot of Negri's writing, framed in an elegant and comprehensive booklet thanks to the liner notes by musicologist Marina Toffetti and the contribution of Maestro Massimiliano Caldi who introduces the "Quartetto d'archi in un tempo". Quartetto d'archi in un tempo - liner notes by Massimiliano Caldi "I had the honour of conducting the first performance of Antonio Eros Negri's Quartetto d'archi in un tempo with the Orchestra d'Archi "Milano Classica" and with Mauro Rossi as solo violinist at the Palazzine Liberty in Milan on 2 June 2002, a date which curiously enough coincided with the 13th anniversary of my conducting debut, which took place precisely on 2 June 1989, again in Milan, at the "Lattuada" Auditorium, with the Octet by I.Stravinsky. The Quartetto d'archi in un tempo is a captivating piece, with a felicitously immediate impact (though neither easy nor obvious) on the listener, created, as is usual with this composer, with an absolutely precise and premeditated design but with a totally unpredictable and involving outcome. I would not hesitate to define this piece as a sort of "polyrhythmic study" based as it is exclusively on the use of rhythmic cells borrowed with great wisdom from Latin American musical culture, in particular from Cuba, combined with each other according to a kaleidoscopic procedure, consisting of progressive integrations of short sections called Clave, Montuno, Tumbao, Quintillo, Rumba Clave, Clave Brasiliana. These additions, however, give rise to a single, compact block, albeit with an evidently multifaceted and multifaceted value, in which there is no lack of wide, more singable, "horizontal" sections, called, precisely, "melodic sections". The structure is very rational: after a very brief introduction of eight measures (in which it is already clear that we are not listening to a "conventional" piece) measures 9-304 will then be repeated in the same way from measures 311 to 606".